My Christmas List

This is what I read over the break...it is not a lot...Santa Jason had me pretty busy!! However, there were lots of things on My Christmas Reading List...here is what I accomplished.

What I Saw and How I Lied
by Judy Bundell

It is a sad day when you find out that everyone you love is a big liar and backstabber, including your mother, your father, and your love interest (who also is having an affair with your mom). This post-world war 2 novel examines what that period in history looked like. There are some really big issues examined: sexuality and gender roles, racism and discrimination, murder...just to name a few. Blundell set a wonderful trap, engrossing the reader until the very end. Evie is an innocent when we get started and by the end, she has blown the lid off of things. Very interesting.
As a side note, Blundell won a National Book Award with this novel. Check out her acceptance speech here!

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore

Some people in this imagined kingdom (a la Tolkien) are graced with cooking or singing, or forecasting weather or mind reading. Katsa has the grace of killing. She is now the king's assassin and she does his bidding as needed.
However, when she meets a prince from one of the neighboring countries, she is forced to examine her roll in the kingdom and, even more importantly, what she would like to do with her future. This sets her out on a journey that ends up having such far reaching tentacles, Katsa could have never imagined.
What I loved about this book: female empowerment! Katsa is a great, strong, independent character that immediately drew me in and kept me interested. I look forward to seeing what Cashore pens next!
Read more and watch the book trailer at the Houghton Mifflin Books site...click here!


School for Dangerous Girls
by Eliot Schrefer

Girls who are so bad that their parents simply give up on them are sent to Hidden Oaks...a School for Dangerous Girls. They are plied with rules, they visit with a shrink, they learn mind games and social games...but most of all, they learn that this school isn't quite what it seems to be.
Schrefer writes a compelling character with Angela, a girl who is just a little bad and uses her powers for good. Another strong and flawed character who has to overcome her self-involvement for the greater good.





Venomous
by Christopher Krovatin

This is one that Dr. Teri Lesesne had recommended back in October...which I just got around to reading... Our main character, Locke, has what we now call, anger management issues. When he gets angry, someone gets a beating. Learning to control "the beast" isn't possible for him and it has driven away almost everyone he has ever cared about. Locke can get the help he needs....but he has to want it bad enough. Will he?
Paired with a comic book alter ego (complete with pictures), Krovatin (who also wrote: Heavy Metal and You)...concocted a book stew of every tasty element you can imagine.


I also read D Magazine and tried out the new O.C. restaurant - Bolsa. Highly recommend that place. Fedora is another place we recently tried...owned by Gina Campisi of the Campisi Italian dynasty. This is another one you don't want to miss! These menus make for GREAT reading!

Enjoy the new year...there is so much in store!